2025 app retention benchmarks report

Retention rate is a key performance indicator that offers deep insights into an app’s performance, especially regarding user loyalty and engagement. It serves as a cornerstone for optimization, monetization strategies, and revenue forecasting. Giving proper attention to retention ensures we stay aligned with campaign goals and empowers us to make data-driven decisions.

Let’s be honest—achieving strong retention is a huge challenge. This is largely due to intense competition within popular categories and the ever-increasing user demand for a seamless experience.

2024 followed in the footsteps of 2023, with an overall slight decline or stagnation in rates. The days of COVID and its high rates in 2020 and 2021 now feel like a distant memory, a time when people turned to entertainment as social distancing measures were in place.

Compounding this issue is the challenge of privacy and signal loss, i.e. the loss of user-level data and actionable insights beyond the initial days of a campaign. It’s no surprise that app marketers often feel like they’re navigating in the dark.

While retention is currently harder to measure on iOS devices, benchmark data continues to be a valuable resource based on data from consenting iOS users (although a minority, it’s not a negligible number), Android usage, and overall retention rates from organic and non-organic installs combined.

Owned media activities like push notifications, email, and SMS have become a crucial component of a comprehensive app marketing strategy, offering new opportunities to drive lifts in retention and long-term LTV of existing users.

Overall, Android retention has weakened slightly compared to 2023 on the very first day post-installs, but has remained stable or even improved a bit after Day 14. YoY retention at Day 1 and Day 3 has indeed declined (respectively -4% and -2%). Rates remained stable at Day 14 and Day 30, and even improved this year at day 14 (+3%).

The YoY retention performances are different in iOS, which show a stability, or quasi-stability, for every day measured. Generally speaking, in 2024, the main platform gap persisted with higher rates on iOS compared to Android by 46%.

Overall, the lack of significant improvements in retention over the past few years highlights the ongoing challenges of keeping users engaged beyond the first month.

Learn and engage: on Android, Dating, Education, and Social Media categories experienced the highest growth in retention, with YoY increases of +35%, +29%, and +23%, respectively. On the other hand, Utilities & Productivity, Transportation, and Lifestyle faced the steepest declines (-13%, -12%, and -11%).

Read and go out: iOS paints a different picture. The categories with the highest YoY retention growth were News & Magazines (+24%), Health & Fitness (+22%), and Photo & Video (+20%). In contrast, the steepest declines were observed in Casinos & Gambling (-45%), Travel (-6%), and Gaming (-5%).

It is worth noting that the general ranking of categories driving the highest retention rates remains unchanged on both platforms: News & Magazines, Business, Transportation, and Shopping continue to lead in retention.

The map draws a sharp contrast between Day 30 retention rates in developed and developing countries, with the former clearly leading the pack. This disparity can be linked to various factors, such as the strong focus on discounts among users in developing countries. With price playing a more significant role, brand loyalty in these regions often takes a backseat.

In terms of Android Day 30 retention rates, Japan continues to stand far ahead of the rest of the world, boasting an impressive 4.15%, well above the United Kingdom at 2.73%. Other developed countries like France and Germany surpass the average rates. Conversely, countries such as Vietnam, Nepal, and Indonesia display lower rates below the average. 

On the iOS platform, some developed countries including the United Kingdom (3.22%) and the United States (3.02%) fall below the average retention rate. These two larger markets are outpaced by smaller European countries like Norway, Belgium or Denmark.

With challenge comes opportunity. Yes, the competition is getting heated. Yes, users are more price-conscious than ever and have increasingly higher expectations. No, the situation is not impossible. Here are some ideas on how you can improve your user retention in 2025: 

Build an outstanding first impression: A great retention rate begins with an effective first-time user experience. Clearly set expectations during installation and deliver on your promises. An intuitive, enjoyable experience fosters customer loyalty and maximizes lifetime value (LTV).

Leverage deep linking: don’t forget to use deep links in your UA campaigns, so that you can guide users straight to the content they’re excited about, ensuring a seamless transition from ad to install, and then from onboarding experience to conversion, without friction.

Harness owned media: Push notifications, email and SMS campaigns: they will drive higher engagement and improve retention rates. Apps that harness these tools effectively often see significant gains in day-30 retention, proving their untapped potential.

Invest in re-engagement campaigns: Run consistent, tailored re-engagement campaigns that add value. Begin within a week of the install and maintain efforts throughout the customer’s lifecycle.

Adapt to new measurement realities: Privacy-centric reality and signal loss brings challenges, and the need to rely on aggregated data of user level metrics. Advanced measurement methods like incrementality testing, predictive analytics, and cohort analysis can help you design and refine winning re-engagement strategies.
Compare against benchmark retention data: Leveraging a wider range of app metrics is always helpful. Even though iOS user-level information and retention data may not be available, benchmark reports and Android app trends can offer valuable insights that can be used to build out retention strategies.